Grammar vs. The World

Do U you ever find urself yourself correcting ppl’s people’s awful grammer grammar on da the web? When you see a Facebook message that reads, “Your sooooo funny,”do you respond with, “My sooooo funny what?!” Do you shake your fists at the grammar gods when people have to much or alot of something? Do you properly punctuate even your text messages with perfect period and apostrophe placement?

If so, you’re probably a grammar snob like me. Hate me if you will, but I’m constantly judging your grammar, spelling and punctuation. I’m constantly faced with an inner battle over whether or not I should publicly correct your spelling and subject you to the condemnation of your other Facebook friends. What kind of journalism student would I be if I didn’t?

Last night, the ladies of my Wednesday night Strategic PR class met at a local restaurant to discuss our current class projects. However, as unbelievable as it may seem, a chat session among eight ladies led to quite a few tangents. One of those off-topic discussions was over our combined frustration for bad internet grammar.

One girl griped about the excessive use of vowels where they’re unwarranted (See: That is so cuteeeeeeeee!). Another bemoaned the improper use of there, their, and they’re. Even our professor commented that she DMs people on Twitter to correct their grammar (because publicly replying would be in poor taste).

So what’s to blame for this bad grammar pandemic? My vote is for cell phones. Never before have I commonly witnessed 14-year-old girls typing one-handed at the speed of light, or couples staring down at their phones instead of at one another while on dates. Only now does the urgent need to text a friend back within mere seconds of message arrival come before any kind of concern for other drivers on the road or walkers on the sidewalk.

And with that urgent need to get messages out into the digital atmosphere as soon as possible comes the utter disregard for Spell Check, or even just giving the message a once-over. As much as I love sifting through the pages on Damn You, Autocorrect!, I can’t help but wonder what kind of life event could have distracted those people from taking a second to look down at their screen before hitting “Send.”

So whether you’ve known it for a while, or you’re just now self-diagnosing yourself as a grammar snob, I hope you find comfort in knowing that you’re not alone. But rather than living in a constant state of aggravation, try to adopt some coping mechanisms. Personally, I turn to the Tale of the Alot when I need a grammar pick-me-up.